While tonight’s screening of Bud Browne’s “Surfing in the 50s” will channel a bygone era, it won’t be exactly like it was in the 50s.
After all, the original surf movies had no sound. Film makers like Browne would start the projector and narrate live as the film reel rolled. But that could get chaotic.
“When he was on his own doing it, he’d be taking care of the projector, taking care of the microphone, running up to the stage, and then he’d notice the film would be going off, and he’d run back to the projector,” said Peter Cole, a big wave pioneer and one of Browne’s frequent subjects.
When things would go wrong, Cole said, the crowds would get unruly. So eventually, he suggested Browne use pre-recorded soundtracks, which he helped narrate.
“Once we put the soundtrack on, and the narration was on the film, Bruce Brown or Bud Browne or (John) Severson or Greg Noll – whoever was doing it – didn’t have to go to the front of the stage to narrate,” he said. “The narration could be edited just like the film. So everyone went to soundtracks, and it just changed the mood because when guys were on their own, things could go wrong, and the crowds would get impatient.”
In today’s Tribune we previewed tonight’s Surf Night event, which is part of the San Luis Obispo International Film Festival. Here’s a second blog entry about it, with words from Cole, film maker Jack McCoy and Browne:
Peter Cole
A former teacher like Browne, Cole was an All-American swimmer at Stanford. His swimming skills helped him charge huge waves in Hawaii.
• On the screening of one Browne movie in 1964: “(John) Weiser got talked into having this hypnotist . . . and the surf film was not coming on, and this hypnotist was on the stage, going on, and the audience started stamping their feet and everything else. And I ran up to the stage and wondered, ‘Where the hell is Weiser?’ And Weiser was hypnotized. So I grabbed the hypnotist and took him off the stage, and his wife was yelling that you can’t break a trance, and I said, ‘The hell you can’t. . .’ The film went up, but it was a near riot.”
• At 76, Cole still surfs 10- to 12-foot waves, though a recent neck surgery slowed him. “I stopped surfing Waimea when I was 65, which was in 1995. And I surfed up until 75, and then all this health stuff started taking over. . . I’ll be going back out, but I always surf Sunset (Beach), because that’s my favorite spot.”
• His advice for withstanding a bad wipeout: “Get a good breath of air and just stay relaxed. If you’re relaxed, you can stay under water a long time. If you get all tight and nervous and excited about it, your ability to control your breath is very limited.”
• Still a traditionalist, Cole refuses to use a leash. “If I have to use a leash, I’ll quit surfing.”
Jack McCoy
Now nearing 60, the film maker is known for movies like “Storm Riders,” “Bunyip Dreaming” and “Free as a Dog.”
• Unlike many surf film makers, McCoy procures the rights to music by established acts, including Jimi Hendrix, Foo Fighters, INXS and the Doors. “Music is the emotion to your film, so I like to try to get the music right.”
• Which band works best with surf music? “I use as many as 20 or 30 songs per film so it’s hard to pick just one and say, ‘This is what I like.’ I try to make it a bit of a rollercoaster ride, where you don’t really know what music is coming up next.”
• The scariest thing he’s had happen while filming in the water? “Man, there’s a lot of them. There are times when you’re down there at the bottom, and you don’t know if you’re going to come up and you start feeling very dreamy and relaxed and thinking, ‘Maybe this drowning thing isn’t so bad.’”
• What makes for a good surf flick: “I just think it has to be entertaining and have a story line. Give them something they can appreciate other than just watching wave after wave of surfing action.”
Bud Browne
Due to his poor health, we could not interview Browne for our story. But we did send questions to Anna Moore, daughter of the late surfer Buzzy Trent, who is a lifelong friend of Browne’s. She collected the following answers from Browne and sent them to us:
What are the key ingredients to a great surf movie?
Big waves, great conditions, and great surfers. Humor always adds to the whole effect as well. Of course filming something that no one else has done is what I’ve always tried to do. This is very hard to do now because many of the well known spots are really crowded.
Was there a sense of competition with Bruce Brown, Greg Noll, and the other film makers who followed you?
They wouldn’t have created good films if there wasn’t a sense of some competition. Naturally I didn’t like competing with other film makers that began to follow. At one time Buzzy Trent asked me the same kind of question in another interview and I said I wish everyone else would quit and leave me alone. Naturally everyone was competing for the best shot of the best surfers. I did the best I could and that may have been competitive.
When you look at your films today, what do you think about most?
I always wonder if I could have done better filming a particular shot from a different angle.
– Pat P.
Photo (of Jose Angel and Peter Cole): Courtesy of Bud Browne
